(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Hard, Honest Truth About the Debate That All Liberals Need To Hear [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-28 Now that we’ve all had a morning to sleep, I have a confession to make: I am annoyed and somewhat perplexed by the liberal freakout over the first Biden-Trump Debate of 2024. I concede that I did not watch the debate live—I have zero desire to hear Trump speak and already know how I’m voting—but I think that’s precisely why I have such a different perspective on it than many of my liberal friends. While the debate aired, I had received liberal freak out texts. When it was over and I finally got home from work last night, I went and watched clips, then read coverage, and eventually watched it in full online. And that experience gave me a very different perspective than liberals who watched the debate live. Let me start by saying that when I read the coverage and watched the clips, I began to feel like I was in a different world than my friends. The recaps (which will reach more undecided voters than the debate itself) showed a variety of clips—some that made Biden look good, some that made him look bad; some that made Trump look good, and some that made Trump look bad. Overall, it looked like a wash. Then I watched the full debate. And yes, Biden did poorly overall…but he also performed just about as poorly as he always had in the 2024 campaign. He flubbed lines just about as badly as he did in the State of the Union, which the media praised as a strong performance. It wasn’t that different from his debate performances in 2020, either. However, Biden did get his message out: he clearly called Trump out on lying multiple times. He touted many of his accomplishments. He warned of the perils of a second Trump term. Also, Trump did not do great, either—he came across as incendiary and a potential menace to our politics, much as he always has. Objectively, it was a bad night for Biden. However, objectively, Biden’s debate performance also wasn’t the campaign-ending, level-ten fire alarm many liberals were making it out to be. This difference in debate experience begs a question: why was there a liberal freakout last night? I think there were a combination of factors. 1. Seeing Biden on stage with Trump made the direness of this election real. A lot of liberal people hadn’t fully imagined Trump blustering and lying and being on a stage next to a typical, poorly-spoken Biden. Seeing it caused people to realize Trump actually could win. 2. A zeitgeist firestorm took hold. When one person starts to panic, everyone does, and it just escalates. Social media algorithms that actively boost emotional content certainly don’t help with this phenomenon. 3. Liberals have an awareness of the conservative narrative about Biden. And there is a belief that undecided voters watched the debate, saw Biden was old just like conservatives have been saying, and therefore won’t vote for him. But there is a MAJOR problem with this third factor: undecided voters, by and large, already believed Biden was old and had seen Biden struggle when speaking. They had already seen the clips conservatives circulate online—some real, some edited—of Biden flubs. And despite seeing all that, they remained undecided. To most of undecided voters, last night was nothing new. I am skeptical that last night’s debate will have any impact on the election. Maybe it causes a small polling slump for Biden, but the notions that the election is over, Trump is certain to win now, or Biden needs to be replaced are all ridiculous. They’re totally divorced from the reality of how elections work and instead are rooted in sensationalist, media-driven fever dreams that every small thing over the course of a campaign has a huge impact. That being said…yes, Trump can win. He might even be favored to win. That reality was true before the debate, and it remains true now. I’m just glad that Democrats and liberals are now waking up to the fact that a convicted felon who led a coup attempt has a real shot at becoming President. It’s about time some of the normies started to take this election seriously. And it means doubling down on Biden, not running away in a tizzy over every little flub he makes. Did Republicans abandon Trump when the Access Hollywood tape leaked in 2016? Did Republicans abandon Trump when he gave half of his staff COVID in 2020? Did Republicans abandon Trump when he was convicted of 34 felonies in 2024? No. So, let’s stay level-headed and not abandon Biden over one bad debate. Biden is the nominee, and that’s unlikely to change. And overall, he’s a good nominee and a good President. We should all want him to be re-elected and to defeat Donald Trump. The hard truth we all need to hear? It’s time for all of us to step up and help Biden win. Donate: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/web-bfp-june-2024 Sign up to volunteer: https://web.joebiden.com/forms/take-action-for-president-biden-and-vice-president-harris/ [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/28/2249310/-The-Hard-Honest-Truth-About-the-Debate-That-All-Liberals-Need-To-Hear?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/